I don't think it's as long as 5-6 hours, maybe only an hour or two. But I don't remember for sure, and I'm not absolutely certain the temperature is 160, but it's something like that. I also heard something about a little weighted glass cylinder that has wax in it. You put the weight on the opposite side of the wax, and drop it in. If the wax is on the bottom, you know it reached 160 at some point and the water is safe to drink.